Windows
Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Releases Password reset For local windows accounts, you have the following options: * Create a password reset disk. This requires you to create the disk before you lose your password. * Offline NT password & registry editor - which allows you to reset the password of local NT/2k/XP/Vista accounts. * Vista password reset - A boot cd where you can reset a Vista password Remote commands Execute commands on remote windows computers from windows and linux, with psexec and winexe, respectively. For instance to restart the IIS service on a server called webserver from a linux machine: winexe -U domain\\user //webserver "cmd /c net stop w3svc && net start w3svc" Or to simply get a console on the remote windows machine run this command: winexe -U domain\\user //webserver "cmd" Installing winexe The program winexe used to be included in the Ubuntu repositories in the wmi-client package. It's available now as an unofficial deb package (might want to find a better source or try to vet this one). Services The services add-in can be opened with the command services.msc. The settings for them are saved in the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services The Start key can have the following values: *0: Started by the bootloader *1: Loaded at kernel initialization *2: Automatically load as a normal service *3: Load on demand (manual) *4: Disabled Slipstreaming Slipstreaming is the art of customizing your installation CD. This usually means that you get a CD with all updates, perhaps some extra programs and you can change and remove existing features. Slipstreaming can be done with programs like nLite for Windows XP or vLite for Vista. Shortcuts Pinoy tech guy has an article summarizing various commands for various windows utilities for windows 2000/xp/vista. Connection test Here's a simple script that tests whether it can ping various IP's and hostnames, which is tested in win xp and vista (vista needs elevated privileges the first time to get pretty colors, because of an issue discussed on the forum): @echo off rem init set fail=�[1A�[30C[ �[1;31mFail�0m set ok=�[1A�[30C[ �[1;32mOK�0m set ansisys=on rem check for ansi.sys type %systemroot%\system32\config.nt | find "ansi.sys" > nul if not errorlevel 1 goto ansisys if errorlevel 1 echo device=%systemroot%\system32\ansi.sys >> %systemroot%\system32\config.nt rem doublecheck type %systemroot%\system32\config.nt | find "ansi.sys" > nul if errorlevel 1 call :noansisys :ansisys cls echo VPN test: echo. echo. call:pr Internet access call :ping 4.2.2.2 call:pr call:pr Server ip call :ping 10.0.0.10 call:pr Server FQDN name call :ping server.domain.local call:pr Server local name call :ping server call:pr pause goto:EOF :ping ping -n 1 -w 500 %1 > nul set err=%errorlevel% if %err% 1 call:pr %fail% if %err% 0 call:pr %ok% goto:EOF :pr set cmdloader= if "%ansisys%" "on" set cmdloader=command /c if "%*" "" %cmdloader% echo. if not "%*" "" %cmdloader% echo %* goto:EOF :noansisys set fail=Fail set ok=OK set ansisys=off goto:EOF Num lock on startup If you prefer having num lock on, you can set what windows forces it to at startup with this command: reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Keyboard" /f /v InitialKeyboardIndicators /t REG_SZ /d 2 A list of values for the keyboard indicators can be found on this annoyances.org article. See also *BSOD *Keyboard layout *Microsoft Downloads *Migrating Windows *Windows category External resources *Microsoft Windows on Wikipedia *Windows Sysinternals *Vernalex sysprep guide - Comprehensive guide with lots of detailed information on sysprep *A geeks guide to Windows XP HAL Replacement Category:Operating systems Category:Windows